A measurement system monitors media consumption habits by a media consumer. Thus, by being cognizant of the media consumption habits, a content provider may effectively determine prices for advertisements, or determine whether certain content displayed or presented at a specific time is effective. Media consumption may refer to viewing a program, listening to an audio program, reading a web site, for example.
The measurement system may be implemented at a single source, such as a television located in at a location or a personal computer. Thus, the measurement system may be equipped with an authentication system that avails a registration for the various personnel associated with the location. The various personnel may register themselves as the media consumer presently associated with the single source.
The process of registration may become burdensome. Because the measurement system requires each media consumer to register themselves, the media consumer may find this process to be inconvenient. Thus, media consumers may piggy-back on a previous media consumer's registration. This leads to inaccuracies in the measurement system's ability to correctly attribute the media being consumed to the correct media consumer.
Thus, the measurement system may be equipped with an automatic authentication prompt (re-prompt). By periodically requesting that the media consumer provide an authentication response or identity, the measurement system may be able to ensure a more accurate measurement.
However, if the periodic requesting occurs too infrequently, the accuracy of the measurement may be lessened. This is due to the chances of the correct media consumer being registered by the measurement system being decreased. If the periodic requesting occurs too frequently, the media consumer may be perturbed by the number of requests to provide authentication.